BISHKEK (AFP) - Opposition leaders in Kyrgyzstan held the reins of power after President Askar Akayev's hardline regime collapsed and looting engulfed the normally sleepy capital of the Central Asian nation.

AFP Photo Reuters Slideshow: Kyrgyzstan Unrest

In a day of dramatic developments Thursday, crowds stormed the White House compound housing the government and presidency and seized control of the main television station.

Amid reports that Akayev had fled the country as discontent over a disputed parliamentary election boiled over, the legislature then met in an emergency session to name opposition chiefs to the nation's top posts.

Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, elected as parliament speaker, will serve as interim president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev as the interim prime minister and Felix Kulov as the chief of the power ministries, deputies attending the session told reporters afterward.

A council of national unity, headed by Bakiyev, will act as a temporary government, they said.

"Askar Akayev right now is not on Kyrgyz soil," Bakiyev said on television, after earlier reports that the 60-year-old, considered to be the most liberal of leaders in ex-Soviet Central Asia, fled the poor mountainous nation of five million on China's western edge that he has ruled since 1990.

But Kyrgyzstan's ambassador to the United States said Akayev had not relinquished power.

"The president has not resigned, he didn't sign his resignation and he is now in a safe place," Baktybek Abdrissaev said in Washington in a news conference televised by CNN.

Bakiyev later said there were no plans to call into question the presence or status of US and Russian military bases in Kyrgyzstan despite the change in power.

"Kyrgyzstan is not planning to review its previous international engagements," he told reporters.

"This applies to the air bases of the anti-terrorism coalition and the Russian air base at Kant," Bakiyev said.

Earlier Akayev was reported to have flown to neighboring Kazakhstan.

Massive looting engulfed the capital Bishkek as night fell, with bands of mostly young men smashing store windows and walking off with everything from supermarket produce to refrigerators.

Opposition leaders warned that looting would be punished, with Bakiyev pledging that "Kyrgyzstan will keep all its international obligations and law and order in the country will be restored very soon."

Bakiyev said Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev had resigned, and the Supreme Court announced that it had annulled results of the parliamentary election on March 13 which sparked the opposition protests.

Amid unprecedented scenes, protesters also freed Kulov, a former vice president jailed in 2000 and who many now believe will become the leader of the fractious opposition.

"Let's keep the peace, let's not lose our head," Kulov said into a megaphone, addressing some 4,000 people on the steps of the White House. "I want to thank you that you weren't afraid and were peaceful and civilized."

From early morning Thursday, protesters began gathering for the biggest opposition show of force in Bishkek to date.

Police, some of them on horseback, repeatedly charged the demonstrators as they neared the White House, but the crowd kept surging forward and soon swept past the overwhelmed security forces into the government compound.

At one point, a lone rider on a black horse galloped through the crowd with a yellow banner in his hand.

"We have taken control of the presidency!" shouted Bakiyev, cheered on by a crowd wild with excitement after hours of scuffles.

Inside, youths brandishing wooden sticks grabbed juice cans from a vending machine that burst open under the assault. Upstairs, men carried off computers and television sets.

Others went on a rampage, smashing windows and throwing chairs, documents and portraits of Akayev out of the window while waving the national flag. Later some bragged of beating up administration officials they found inside the building.

Protesters, fired up by fighting and alcohol, proudly displayed battle trophies of police helmets, bulletproof vests and clubs. Several with bloodied faces tried to staunch the flow with the pink and yellow headbands of the Kyrgyz opposition.

Akayev's departure sets an unexpected precedent in a turbulent region with a potentially explosive ethnic mix and a tradition of autocratic rule backed by Moscow in the name of stability and the struggle against Islamic extremism.

"If the situation normalizes, these events will have an impact on Central Asian countries by giving them the example of a popular movement that managed to topple the regime in power," said Russian analyst Andrei Gruzin.

"It's absolutely unbelievable, no one expected this to happen," said Rita Mangiyeva, a 19-year-old student. "We thought that maybe we would have a revolution 10 to 20 years from now."

Thursday's events in Bishkek, situated in the north of the country, were a dramatic escalation of opposition protests that until now had been focused on the impoverished and more volatile south.

They followed March 13 parliamentary elections which the opposition claims were rigged by Akayev's administration in order to pack the assembly with his supporters ahead of presidential elections in October.

The opposition's presence in the 75-member parliament was nearly wiped out, while his older daughter and son both won seats.

Powerless to intervene, the Russian foreign ministry said the developments were "a cause for serious concern" and urged a return to "a lawful path."

Within the last two years, Russia has seen pro-Moscow regimes swept away in two other former Soviet republics, Georgia and Ukraine, following mass street protests also sparked by disputed elections.

The United States had no official comment on the situation, but ambassador Stephen Young, its envoy in Bishkek, stressed the country's strategic role and urged Russia and China to pitch in with Washington to help restore stability.

Story Tools

Email Story   Post/Read Msgs (346)   Formatted Story   Ratings: Would you recommend this story? Not at all 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 Highly